


Be My Valentine

by kurtiepie



Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Never Met, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, valentine's day fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-02-15
Packaged: 2018-03-12 21:57:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3356765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurtiepie/pseuds/kurtiepie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurt is on a mission to find a last-minute Valentine's Day gift for Rachel that will not only be sufficient but also better than the one she got him. Along the way, he meets Blaine, who is in need of a little assistance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Be My Valentine

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little alternate meeting AU for Valentine's Day. Set in season 6.

Kurt grips tight to his keys as he walks up the Target parking lot. In truth, ‘march’ might be a better word to use for his brisk, single-minded pace. From his car to the automatic doors, he’s almost hit by five cars, a chorus of horns and screeching tires left in his wake.

He can’t find it in him to be patient or courteous, though. Not when he’s in such a hurry.

The store’s signature red and white interior is coupled with splashes of pink. Cardboard hearts hang from the ceiling alongside signs reminding shoppers to pick up something for their valentine. It seems to be an effective reminder, too, because there are crowds of people around the sale bins along the main front aisle, sorting through and fighting over small stuffed animals and boxes of chocolate.

Kurt would wager that this is typical pandemonium one would find in a day-of Valentine’s Day rush, but he’s never been  _this much_ of a last minute shopper before. He’s never been out and about to experience it for himself. He can say with certainty now, though, that he really hates it.

With a steadying breath, he moves forward into the crowd, squeezing past stone-faced women and frantic-eyed men and small children that scream their unhappiness at their parents. Rather than attempting to worm his way into this battle over marked-down items, he sets his sights on the regularly priced seasonal gifts that are further within the store’s depths.

Whether or not there will still be anything on those shelves is a whole scenario that sends Kurt’s mind spiraling down as he rushes through the store.

“ _Excuse_  me,” he snaps at a trio of stop-and-gawkers who plant themselves in his path. He whips around them and moves on before they even get a chance to look at him properly.

Irritation tightens up his chest. He could still be relaxing in bed right now, contemplating when he would get up for a late breakfast.  _If only I’d kept my damn mouth shut_ , he thinks.

He’d woken up on his own just as the sun was rising, and had taken the time to revel in the warmth and comfort of his bed. It’s had been glorious, a small bit of quiet time not taken up by contemplating set-lists and weekly lessons for glee club or his thesis for NYADA. Just Kurt and the company of his thoughts.

His morning had been peacefully inactive until Rachel called at nine-thirty.

It was a typical call, in spite of Rachel’s surprise at how awake Kurt sounded. They talked about the plans they made together for later in the day, since they are both single and definitely not mingling. Dinner at Breadstix and then a movie; her reason for calling had been about the latter, a query regarding whether he wanted to go out to a movie theater or watch something at her house.

Then, Rachel said, “Oh, I’m so  _excited_  to give you your present!”

Kurt’s eyes snapped open.

“Um. Present?”

“Of course,” she said. There’d been a pause, and then, “You forgot to buy me something, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t realize we were exchanging presents.”

“Kurt, you  _know_  I love presents!”

They went back and forth like this for a while before Kurt assured her that he would find a present so amazing that it would blow whatever she got him out of the water.

The only problem is, he had no idea what that promise entails. In fact, he  _still_  doesn’t know as he jogs past the make-up aisles toward the Valentine’s Day gifts.

It’s between the office supplies and the computer accessories that he finds what he’s looking for. Shelves organized from small to large with over-sized stuffed animals and button-activated dancing cupids. The stock is limited, a hefty dent made in the number of options left. Nonetheless, Kurt feels like he can breathe easy for the first time since he got here.

Despite the crowds near the front of the store, there is only one other person in the aisle with him. It’s a guy who appears to be around Kurt’s age. His dark hair is gelled down, and the sleeves on his smoke gray sweater and the baby pink button-up underneath rolled up. Kurt watches from the opposite end of the aisle as the guy tries to grab an enormous stuffed giraffe from the highest shelf.

Every time the guy—who is standing on his tip-toes—pulls on the stuffed animal, the teddy bears and gorillas and lions around it scoot forward as well.

Kurt hears him let out a frustrated groan, a faint noise from this far away. The guy braces his free hand on the shelf, adjusts his hand on the giraffe’s foot like he’s getting ready to yank on it. The thought of the resulting avalanche that would cause sets Kurt into gear.

Kurt hurries down the aisle, and says, “ _Whoa whoa whoa whoa_ ,” until the guy looks over at him. His eyes are round, wide with surprise, as Kurt approaches him.

“Hey, hi, yeah. I can help you out with that, if you want-”

“Oh! Yeah, sure. Thank you, oh my god.”

It takes some maneuvering, both of them exchanging awkward, too chipper sentence fragments as they figure out how best to make it work. In the end, they’re side by side, Kurt leaning into the guy's space so he can reach his arm underneath both of the guy's. He holds his hands up in front of the stuffed animals to block them while the guy pulls the giraffe out of the bunch.

“Thank you so much for your help,” he says.

Kurt shrugs, keeps his eyes on the animals. “Not a problem. I need to shop in this aisle, too, and I’d rather not trip over gorillas that are half my height.”

The guy laughs, and it’s such a pleasant, joyful sound that Kurt can’t help but smile.

“My name’s Kurt, by the way.”

“I’m Blaine.”

After a couple more tugs, the giraffe is free, the weight of its stuffing causing it to fall forward off the shelf and bonk Blaine in the head with its own. Kurt focuses on pushing the other toys back, his back to Blaine so that he doesn’t see Kurt giggling.

Once he turns back around, Blaine has the giraffe held to his side in one arm, the toy propped up on his hip with its face pressed against his shoulder. His sleeves are rolled down, a little wrinkled but back in their proper place.

He smiles at Kurt. “Thanks again.”

“You’re absolutely welcome,” Kurt says. He puts his hands in his back pockets, and looks at the giraffe then back at Blaine. “Although I’m not sure why you needed the one that was the most difficult to get.”

Blaine’s grin turns a little embarrassed as he rolls his eyes and looks away, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, back and forth.

“You’re going to think this is so lame, but- It’s this tradition I have with my mom. She buys me candy, I buy her a stuffed animal. And giraffes are one of her favorites, so...” Blaine ends with a shrug, his eyes back on Kurt now.

Kurt presses a hand over his heart. “That’s not  _lame_ , that’s sweet. It’s nice that you have something with her like that.”

Blaine shrugs again, doesn’t say anything. The reddish tint to his cheeks, put together with his pink button-down and all the heart-themed displays around them, makes the color of his lips pop. Kurt stares for a moment, distracted, until he realizes Blaine is speaking to him.

“So what brings you here in the middle of the Valentine’s Day rush?” he asks. “Need a gift for someone special?”

With a sigh, Kurt crosses his arms, feels the way his shirt sleeves tighten with the movement. Even though he can feel cool air against his neck from a ceiling vent, he wishes he weren’t wearing his coat, imagining Blaine’s eyes darting to his biceps, lingering there for a moment.

He hasn’t really taken his eyes off of Kurt to begin with, though.

“Yeah. My friend, Rachel,” he says. “She informed me  _this morning_  that we’re doing gifts this year, and I may have said mine’s going to be better than hers. So- here I am. Scrounging for what’s left.”

Blaine hums, nods his head. Then, he gives Kurt a look similar to the narrow-eyed one he gave the giraffe in his arm when it’d been stuck on the shelf. This time, instead of frustration-driven, it’s evaluating and a little curious.

“'Better' like, more expensive? Or more sentimental?”

Kurt thinks for a moment, then frowns. He hadn’t gotten that far yet. Helping Blaine has derailed him from his train of thought—a train of thought that hadn’t even left the station—so he’s a little clueless about any specifics.

He reaches back into his memory, trying to remember all the times he’s given Rachel a gift or had watched her receive one from another person. He remembers Finn saying she’d asked, “Where’s my bling?” once about a Christmas present he’d given her, so he’s more inclined to say expensive rather than sentimental.

Then again, there’s no way in hell he’s going to break his bank account for a Valentine’s Day present, especially when she knows he’s buying it last minute. He’s not that dedicated to one-upping her, and she would probably feel bad if some gift-giving rivalry is what prompted him to spend so much on her.

“Because if you’re going sentimental,” Blaine says. Kurt looks up from the floor, focuses on Blaine again. “I have an idea that’s worked for me in the past. Sort of DYI, very ‘aw’-inducing.”

Kurt laughs a bit, then says, “Okay then, what is it?”

“Well, there was this guy I was dating around this time last year,” Blaine starts, then pauses to cough. In that time, Kurt lets the information sink in, the confirmation of his sexuality ( _this_ stranger’s _sexuality, god, is this weird?_ )sending sparks through his veins, before he takes a breath, reining in the temptation to bounce on his toes from excitement.

Blaine continues, his voice clearer than before, “Sorry about that. Anyway, he didn’t really like big, expensive presents. So, I decided that I would buy a box of those Valentine’s cards that kids give each other in school, you know the ones? And I- well, I wrote different nicknames that we had for each other on the to-and-from places, that part was silly. But on the back, where it was blank, I wrote memories we’d had over the past year and stuff like that. One memory for every card, you know. Then I folded them up, put them in a paper bag and decorated it, and then I gave it to him.”

“Did he like it?” Kurt asks, smiling.

Blaine nods. “Oh yeah, it went over really well. And it was super cheap, way cheaper than flowers or anything like that.”

“That’s amazing.” And Kurt means it. A lot of people, friends and strangers alike, tend to think he has tastes too good for anything thrifty, but they couldn’t be more wrong. He grew up with arts and crafts, and enjoys making things with his own two hands. And only a few people know it, but he is a Pinterest bandit. Anything that even looks like a do-it-yourself project wins his heart, hands down.

“N- Not,” Blaine says, a new wideness to his eyes. “Not that I wouldn’t buy flowers for someone, because I totally would, but- Since-”

“I get it, Blaine, don’t worry,” Kurt says, holding up a hand to pause him.

And he does stop, letting out a long breath as he relaxes. He smiles back at Kurt, and the sight of that sunny expression makes him never want to leave Blaine’s company. They barely know each other, and Kurt feels ridiculous for feeling like this, but-

_People meet like this sometimes, right?_  he thinks.  _That happens._

It isn’t something that happens to him, or to anyone he knows. But it can’t be impossible.

Blaine’s still standing there, hugging that giraffe to his side—and Kurt hopes Blaine doesn’t want to leave either—so, once he gathers all the pieces of courage he has in his heart, he decides to take a chance.

“Hey, so. This might be me overstepping, but I was wondering if I could possibly get your phone number?”

Surprise washes across Blaine’s face, raises his eyebrows and parts his mouth.

Kurt’s trying to stay cool, but he’s not sure what to do with his arms. They feels clunky crossed at his chest and clunky down at his sides. He digs his hands into his coat pockets, his left hand wrapping around his phone, the knuckles on his right digging into his keys.

After a couple of seconds, Blaine blinks out of his shock. His mouth closing on his speechlessness only to open right after, much more capable this time around.

“ _Oh!_  Yeah, yeah, I’d-” A new smile blooms across Blaine’s face, the biggest of any of his smiles yet. It’s kind of beautiful to see, and Kurt can’t help but smile, too. “I would love that, it’s-”

“Wait, hold on,” Kurt says, pulling out his phone. He tips in his passcode—twice, because he rushes it the first time and messes it up—and when he’s ready, he gives Blaine a go-ahead nod.

Kurt gives Blaine his number in return, and the good-byes they exchange after that are smiley and a little breathless.

Including the years he spent in glee club and his adventures when he’d been in New York, giving his number to a boy he’d only spoken to for five minutes or so, a boy he met at a Target in Lima, is hardly the most reckless thing he’s ever done. As he looks in a neighboring aisle for the boxes of kid Valentines, though, he thinks that it may have been one of the better decisions he’s made. Only time will tell, and he is more than excited to find out.


End file.
